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Explorations: my author blog

Here is a bit of nonsense (cross-posted from my livejournal), inspired by Angela Goff. You can find all her visual dares at her blog, http://anonymouslegacy.blogspot.com. This is an amazing picture! The story that follows is fanfic, just for fun. Enjoy!

Flabbergasted, Mortimer Wimsey glared at the dining room table, then at his daughter. She flinched.

“Polly! Get that damn thing off the table!”

Polly’s lips trembled, but she looked him in the eye. “Lambkin’s on strike, like the suffragettes.”

Mortimer saw his younger son, just home from Eton, squeeze his little sister’s hand. Peter seemed to be trying not to laugh. They’d be the death of him, these two. Far too clever for their own good. “Strike!” he spluttered. “Suffragettes! Why, you-“

Peter walked across the room and whispered in his father’s ear. Mortimer looked thoughtful. He rumbled, “Polly, listen to me. We know you’ve become a vegetarian. We know it’s a principled stand. But don’t you want to take Lambkin to school?” Polly nodded.

“Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.” (The Annotated Thursday, Chesterton, paperback, 1999 Ignatius press, page 81).

This quote leapt into my head when I was watching The Dark Knight Rises the other night – I showed the whole series to my teens this summer, and I continue to be impressed at how well thought out and (generally) well told this story is.

I thought of Chesterton while watching Anne Hathaway’s excellent Cat Woman. This young woman certainly respects property, and wishes to respect it more perfectly by making it her own! She is a great contrast to the chief villain, who is a nihilistic anarchist. There’s been some talk on the internet about how the movie was influenced by the Occupy movement, with this villain, Bane, encouraging violence against corporate owners. That reading is simplistic on two counts. For one thing, the various democratic uprisings around the world have been composed of ordinary people seeking freedom and justice. The terrorist Bane pays lip service to such ideals, but, in fact, he intends to destroy Gotham and evenyone in it – not just the wealthy and corrupt one percent. Bane is an utter nihilist. It may amuse him to let criminals sit in judgement on policemen and bankers, but, in the end, he will kill the criminals, too. No one and nothing is safe from him.